Killing Joke is a band that has been around for quite some time, and a well known force among many in the Industrial/Post-Punk musical worlds. Formed back in 1978 in London, England, this band has produced many full-length efforts that have swayed many of today's well known acts, such as Ministry, Nirvana, even Lamb of God and many, many more. Absolute Dissent makes for the band's fourteenth full-length effort since their debut in 1980 and, honestly, it's rather bland, drawn out, and sounds restrained, as well as other things.
Over the years, the band has changed their style around, making it impossible to argue that their debut release is anything like their latest effort. However, Absolute Dissent really focuses on crafting just a straiight forward Industrial Rock album over the Post-Punk sound, or even Alternative Rock sound, that many have grown to embrace over the years. For the most part, this album has some real commercial potential, especially with the more upbeat and light hearted track "In Excelsis", which features some catchy guitars that really set up in a wonderous (not in emotion, but more like a childhood curiosity) atmosphere to the song with a chorus that is rather simple, yet insanely catchy. However, there are many problems with the material on this recording, and sadly, for as catchy as "In Excelsis" is, it shows the biggest flaw of all around three-fourths of the way through the song: Repetition.
The ending of "In Excelsis" doesn't quite feel drawn out, but eventually it just starts to get repetitive due to how long the same music and lyrics are performed, slowly dragging the song down to the point where the listener is going to be asking when the song will end in the back of his/her skull. This and drawn out music are huge factors to Absolute Dissent, but not the only problems. Another issue that plagues this release is the production quality. The production here isn't necessarily a raw quality, but it's just very muddy, and the drums often sound as if they are washed out, while nothing else is. All the songs flow at a general mid-tempo pace, but even then it sounds cluttered and lack any real sort of kick due to how muffled the instruments sometimes sound, sharing roughly the same volume of the vocals, while the industrial sounds added are much louder in the long run. The title track, "Absolute Dissent", is perhaps the biggest victim of this, as the song is practically unlistenable after the first minute and a half, not to mention just extremely bland and unimpressive to begin with, coming off as more of a restrained track then it should have been. "European Super Skate" shows some promise and is honestly a catchy track, but it's the industrial sounds are louder then anything else on the song.
Of all the production issues, there aren't many tracks on here that don't become affected. However, the slower paced "Honour the Fire" winds up being one of the few that stand up. While the audio quality of the release is still not all that fantastic, it is still a rather stong song that goes at a little slower pace then you would expect with some great atmosphere, much like that on "In Excelsis", but this track doesn't feature any really boring moments. There's also no sections of the song where it starts to just feel drawn out or repetitive, making for a very laid back Rock track. The same can be said abotu "The Raven King", except the ambience just isn't quite the same. However, the vocal performance on here winds up being one of the better ones off the album and causes the song to stand out and be a little more enjoyable then it would have been had the vocals simply retained the same rather monotone sound that is used through many of th esongs on here.
Aside some tracks thar aren't too bad to listen to, there's just plenty wrong with this release. Overall, however, the album itself becomes very bland and repetitive, which seems to only be aided by the poorer production quality. However, if you're looking for a good sleeping aid, then Absolute Dissent should work out well for you, since I wound up passing out from this release six times, due to the lack of motivational songs that fail to even hit a relaxing atmosphere, which was clearly the intent, with soft, yet monotone vocals that show some talent, but wind up feeling as restrained as the music itself.
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